Thursday Night on the Olentangy

Thursday night football has not been seen in Columbus, Ohio since late August of 1997. I know I was there when the Buckeyes defeated the University of Wyoming 23-10 on the banks of the Olentangy where hundreds of thousands of rabid Buckeye fans tailgate with the best of them. I have been to a lot of tailgate parties and the Buckeyes are right there at the top. This Thursday is another celebration for Buckeye fans as the season it's the kick off of the 2010 football season with aspirations of a National Championship not tasted in Columbus in 8 years.

This year's opening foe is Marshall. Another second tiered school in a long line of season openers for the Buckeyes where they are expected to win handily. The Buckeyes do win these games handily but they tend to put a scare in their fans early in the year as coach Jim Tressell tell his players to not think ahead to the next game but doesn't usually practice that as he keeps a tight lock on the playbook running just the basics on their out manned foes.

This is an ongoing trend that you can predict. The last time Ohio State faced Marshall early in the year prior to a big out of conference game place kicker Mike Nugent of the NFL needed to save the day with a 55 yard field goal as time expired to give the Bucks a three point victory in 2003. This was just one year removed from winning a national championship and with all the talent the Bucks had returning they found a way to keep it close to the discouragement of Buckeye fans and sports gamblers.

If anything was learned from that 2003 game against Marshall it was re-enforced the last three years. The past three seasons the Buckeyes have opened up with Akron, Miami of Ohio, and Navy. In each game the Buckeyes were huge favorites including 33 point favorites last year against the Midshipmen and were lucky to escape with a 31-28 victory. Granted the Buckeyes had every opportunity to blow the game wide open but coach Tressell never bothered to get too cute with the play book that allowed Navy to get back into the game along with some scarlet and gray sleepwalking as turnovers and failed fourth down conversions put the 1st string back into the game as Tressell did put in second stringers early in the 2nd half. There wasn't much difference in games the previous two seasons as Ohio State's bland playbook and lethargic play kept games close on the scoreboard with Akron 20-2 and Miami of Ohio 28-17. In both instances the Buckeyes were huge favorites.

What can be expected of this year's opener against Marshall. We can expect much of the same as the Bucks will not be showing much offensively or defensively on film much to the dismay of the high powered Miami Hurricanes who visit the Horseshoe on the Olentangy September 11. If the Buckeyes are going to win a national title they need to win all of their games which leaves no room for error. A team like Miami with it's tall, fast receivers, athletic defense and modern day mad bomber in Jacory Harris can pull off the upset in Columbus but they will not be getting any decent scouring reports with what I expect will be a very tight game not indicative of the 28 point spread.

Week #1 college picks of the week

Week #1 in college football might be the easiest of weeks to pick the winners.


An example of a rock solid pick in week #1 will be in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Despite being on rocky times the program is not going to stay down forever and Rich Rodriquez just didn't all of a sudden get stupid. Against UCONN in week #1 the Wolverines are favored by 3 points. UConn is a team on the rise making steady strides every year under Randy Edsall. This will be the toughest opening game for the Huskies though in their short history of division I football. Unfortunately no one will be sneaking up on the Wolverines only two years removed from one of the most storybook upsets in the history of college football as a team featuring numerous NFL players was upset in front of 110,000 plus maize and blue fans.

Michigan will win this game by more than three points based on the level of talent. Rich Rodriquez has been recruiting top players to Michigan and last year the team was full of first and second year players. Well these players are growing up and this year they will show the world they are a top 20 team. In 2009 the Wolverines showed flashes early in the season starting out hot but than taking a beating in conference play. A lot of those late season losses were based on poor play from QB Tate Forcier. Forcier a true freshmen took a beating last season and as fresh and talented as he was early in the year he was beaten up by mid-season and lacked the leadership skills he flashed early in the year. Expect the UM signal caller to come out showing off the style of play he teased us with early last year and than some as the QB growth if the greatest from their first year of starting to their second.

On the defensive side of the ball Michigan matches up very well against UConn's run oriented offense which will force UConn to throw the ball against a much improved UM secondary. By the end of the day Husky QB Zach Frazier should have more picks than touchdowns leading to a lopsided home opener for the Wolverines.

The pick of the week goes to the Colorado State Rams. The Rams are 12.5 point underdogs to in state rival Colorado. The history of this game is tight with 8 of the last ten games in this series decided by less than a touchdown. Three of those games have gone to overtime. Colorado does not have a dominating offense either passing or rushing the ball as Dan Hawkins cannot make up his mind on who to start at quarterback and has come up short on the recruiting trail since leaving Boise State 5 years ago for greener pastures. The Buffaloes are a team in disarray with no identity but they are the big name school on the national level that will attract bettors attention for all the wrong reasons.

Meanwhile Colorado State started out last year 3-0 including a 23-17 win over in state rival Colorado. Down the stretch the Rams proceeded to lose their final 9 games of the year. This year does not look promising on the offensive side of the all with freshman Pete Thomas under center. Hence the 12.5 point spread. Fact is neither team has an established QB and in a rival game it would not be a surprise to see the Rams come out victorious and at the very least they will keep it close as is the nature of this series.

Drunk, Fat and Stupid is No Way to Go Through Life

Those infamous words of Dean Vernon Wermer said nearly 30 years ago to a young, fat booze bag named Flounder are prophetic words for Oregon State redshirt freshman Tyler Patrick Thomas today. The young Beaver was drunk and naked in a stranger's house. I hate to say it but I did that and was never kicked out of school. Hell I was at the other OSU and not only was I naked but pissed on student nurse Shelly's chair in a stupor. So I am sympathetic to the boy's cause. I especially appreciated how handled the police. He was drunk and resorted to his instincts as a football player and got into his three point stance and was showing off how he run blocks for local hero Jaquizz Rodgers. In an era where we are all hero worshiping Oregon State head coach Mike Riley failed to weigh all of the facts.

Here are the facts. Riley recruited Thomas from a small Montana town, Kalispell. In Kalispell being a bad boy means putting bombs in packages a al Phil Jackson's long lost twin brother Ted Kazyinski who resided in another desolate Montana town with no running water. Kazyinski did the reverse of young Mr. Thomas starting out as an aspiring young genius with degrees from Harvard and the University of Michigan before becoming a professor by the age of 25 at Cal Berkley before giving up at the ripe young age of 29 and taking up residency in Lincoln, Montana where he gained fame as the unabomber. So having a few drinks and getting naked is just "going to bed" as the houses are few and far between one in Kalispell rarely ever thinks they can pick the wrong house as the houses usually have 50 acres between them. In the big city of Corvallis, Thomas picked the wrong house, hey they all look alike. It happens I have done this a good four times in life. Shame on your Mike Riley if you are going to recruit kids from Montana you need to start taking some Montana sensitivity classes and understand you can take the boy out of Montana but you cannot take Montana out of the boy.


Thomas was rudely awoken from a deep and comfortable sleep by a couple of goons in cop uniforms. It's safe to say cops in their dark blue uniforms look like intruders and than you combine mirrored sunglasses at night perked upon a porno mustachioed shnozz and the poor kid probably freaked out and had no time to cover up his willie and instinctively got into a three point stance and tried to bull rush his rude sleep interrupting night visitors.

Heck getting shock treatment in the raw not administered by a non-professional dominatrix is embarrassment enough. I think the kid could have law suit for pigs practicing domination in tacky attire. Heck the kid has to come into the locker room and face his teammates isn't the embarrassment punishment enough. Hell! the kid is living in Corvallis, Oregon, he plays football everyone in town knows he was tasered in the raw I say to you Mike Riley is that enough embarrassment and big bad Coach Riley is not there to comfort the kid through his embarrassment but he is there to throw sal in the wounds.

Thanks alot Coach Riley. Next time you recruit a kid from Kalispell, Montana understand you are pulling a kid from the outer area of society, they think a little bit different in Montana. Don't recruit the kid unless you can understand his culture and show a little bit of sensitivity when he makes a mistake.

Well Tyler Patrick Thomas your life is just begging. You have not yet scratched the surface of your roaring twenties. Coach Riley and the Beavers might have barred you but all is not lost. There just happens to be this real Nutt job down in Oxford, Mississippi who will accept anyone on his football team and boy you are not just anyone you got press in the big city and any press is good press for Kalispell residents.

NFL Pre-Season, Oh hell it's a future

Let's not fuck around this season with our sports betting habits. Let's start out with the smartest investment you can make. The hell with buying sports betting insurance from a sports book that is just a bunch of bullshit. Let your money do your talking and the best bet of the season is the NFL future bets. The season is 16 weeks long and by looking at the schedule, considering last year's team and the chemistry of the team you can make a very strong assessment. So this year take half your bi-monthly paycheck and throw it down on one team. This year's team is the Tennessee Titans and I am going to tell you why they will win more than eight games?

Scheduling: The Titans got off to a horrible start in 2009 losing their first 6 games before ownership came through with forcing the hand of Head Coach Jeff Fisher to pull the aging Kerry Collins in favor of the franchise Quarterback selected in 2006 with the 2nd overall selection Vince Young. Vince showed he was back to his old form as a rookie in 2006 when he led the Titans to the playoffs before being supplanted in 2008 by Collins. The season starts out against Oakland, the doormat of the NFL despite that old prune Al Davis claiming otherwise as he likened himself with George Steinbrenner as the two elite owners in all of sports. Playing the Raiders at home in week one Titan season bettors should realize they are either going to lose the bet right away if they cannot beat the Raider or they will be one game closer to a season ending payday. Remember half those monthly earnings on the Titans to win 8 or more this season. After the Raider the Titans gets two of their next three at home.

In week two the Titans face the Ben Roethlisberger-less Steelers. Say as much as you want about Big Ben being a soiled diaper on the ass of society but Ben has earned two Super Bowl rings before his 28th birthday and the win over the Cardinals in February of 2009 was all about Big Ben imposing his will to win his second Lombardi Trophy. The Steelers will be a better team to face early in the season as they will open up with either Dennis Dixon or the ever immobile Byron Leftwich who is a sandwich waiting for the speedy athletic front four of the Titans to devour. The Steelers will also be without their leading receiver of last year Santonio Holmes and debut a new running back in Rashad Mendenhall.

Week three could be the toughest game of the early season for the Titans as they have to travel to New York to face the Giants. Hopefully the time the Titans reach the new Meadowlands they should be 2-0 with a winning attitude that is ready to take down the Giants on the road.

Week #4 the ailing Denver Broncos pay a visit to the Music City. Right now the Broncos pose very little threat with Kyle Orton under center and a defense riddled by season ending pre-season injuries most notable their top pass rusher outside linebacker Elvis Dumervil. The only Elvis in the house in Nashville on October 3rd will be the legion of Elvis impersonators in the stands.

The game is not played on paper so strictly looking at the schedule is not enough to predict a minimum of 8 wins for the Titans. The two key ingredients to winning a Super Bowl is a vaunted rushing attack and solid defense.

No team in the NFL is better suited to run the ball than the Tennessee Titans. First off is the hogs up front. Despite not having any household names on the offensive line the Titans return four of the five guys up front with only Leroy Harris as a newcomer for an offensive line that paved the way for 2,000 yard rusher Chris Johnson. If an offensive line is judged on how many yards their running backs gain then this unit gets an A plus. Making this unit even more impressive is the history of Titan football. The Titans have been one of the top rushing teams in the NFL for the past decade. These guys come in and learn how to run block from day one.

Now the man who needs no introduction the fastest man in the NFL and the most recent member of the 2,000 yard club and friendly contract extension; Chris Johnson might have a mouthful of gold teeth but there is nothing tacking about his running style. He will run right by you with that extra gear the scares the league’s fastest defensive backs. Johnson is a game changer. He can score from anywhere on the field and with a guy like that he is worth winning at least one road game the Titans shouldn’t win.

While Johnson is not running the ball Vince Young will be passing the ball but if he decides to pull the ball down he has great speed that can get away from lineman and has the size to run over defensive backs and he can take his choice with the linebackers of run around them or run over them. Granted the Titans do not want to see VY get physical with a linebacker so chances are if he cannot outrun them he will take the easy way out of bounds but not until picking up positive yardage.

On defense the Titans much like their offensive line do not have a lot of name players but what they do have is a lot of speed and athleticism which will cause nightmares for opposing offenses that will not be able to tire down the Titans and their depth especially on the line. For years the Titans have been among the league leaders against the run and that is not about to change this season and with the pass rushers this will help the defensive backfield that has been improving to not have to cover their man as long as most d-backs in the league. Also like the offensive lineman are taught from day one in Nashville how to run block and be physical the Titan defense is taught how to defend the run which they do better than average and are often at the top of the league in this category and after 16 seasons there is no reason for coach Jeff Fisher to alienate this plan.

Prediction for the Titans this season they will have at least 11 wins and they will fly past the magic number of 8 in late November.

Sportsbetting It's Fantastic

Sportsbetting it is allowed in Nevada along with Oregon and Delaware. The NFL does not want sports betting allowed anywhere but Nevada. Obviously Nevada is too well established to care about the NFL's opinion of sports betting, specifically football. Fact is whether betting $5 or $5000 on a football game it makes the game more interesting.

I am not a big sports bettor but putting a $20 spot on last week's PGA Championship for Tiger Woods to win at 13-1 made the event very entertaining for me. I lost but if I had a chance I would do it again. I don't like to lose but the entertainment value was priceless.

In football my greatest bet was my first legal bet in 1988 in Las Vegas. The University of Southern California was led by future NFL Quarterback Rodney Peete. The Trojans were undefeated opening up the season with a big east coast victory over Boston College, and followed that up with 4 more victories including wins over college football powerhouse #3 Oklahoma where they thoroughly whipped the Sooners and an impressive whipping of #18 Oregon by the scores of 23-7 and 42-14.

Meanwhile the Huskies looked lackluster in a 35-31 win at home against west coast patsy San Jose State and were beaten at home by SC's rival UCLA in Seattle. The oddsmakers were all over the Trojans making them a 13.5 point opening line favorite. By the time I got off a small 20 seat jet from Santa Barbara in the city of sin the Trojans were up to 15 points in most casinos and by the time I placed my bet at Barbary Coast the curernt site of Bill's Gambling Hall and Taven just across the street from Ceasar's Palace I had 14.5 points with the Huskies.

The game opened slowly with USC putting up the only score of the first quarter taking a 7-0 lead. The second quarter starter out bad for Husky bettors with USC cashing in with another touchdow to increase their lead to 14-0 and it appeared to be off to the races for the Trojans as they were driving for a third score when an untimely turnover gave the Huskies the ball deep in their own territory but kept the Trojans from blowing the game wide open. The Huskies were able to cut into the Trojan lead converting the turnover into a touchdown scoring drive led by Husky QB Cary Conklin making the score 14-7 heading into half time.

The second half started out much like the first half with the Trojans driving but not able to convert in Husky territory for any points. The Huskies seemed to have new life as they warded off the Trojans and opened up the scoring in the 2nd half to tie the game at 14-14. It was now an even game the 19th ranked Huskies despite being a 15 point underdog was knotted up in the second half with the #3 ranked Trojans. The Trojans would score again in the 3rd quarter to take a 7 point lead at 21-14 heading into the decisive and final quarter.

At plus 14.5 points I was feeling really good and would start to feel great as the Huskies answered the Trojans early in the final quarter to make it 21 apiece. With under 8 minutes remaining USC satisfied their hungry fans with putting another touchdown on the board and a 7 point lead. Still I was winning the bet by 7.5 points and would need a complete meltdown against SC in the latter half of the quarter. Highly unlikely and certainly not improbable. What would happen next would make this an ESPN classic.

USC would stop the Huskies on their ensuing drive and woudl take over the ball with under 6 minutes remaining. Behind Peete the Trojans would drive towards mid-field but an inspired Husky defense would put the clamps down forcing a punt by SC. Faced with a long field un-heralded but also future NFL back-up QB Conklin would miraculously pull of 3rd down and 4th down conversions before scoring what appeared to be a tying touchdown in the final seconds of the game to make the score 28-27. Back in 1988 thre were no overtimes in college football and Head Coach Don James called on his Huskies to go for the win rather than settle for the chip shot extra point for a tie. Luckily for SC future NFL All-Pro and Chicago Bear Mark Carrier would make the game saving play in the end zone tipping a Conklin pass and preserving the SC victory.

Meanwhile I was holing a ticket for $2750 to win $2500 on the Huskies. UW was too good of a team to be getting more than two touchdowns and darn near pulled out the victory. I would celebrate that night at Ceasar's Palace by putting a $550 to win $500 on the over 6.5 in game one of the World Series between the heavily favored Oakland A's and gimply Kirk Gibson. Three innings before Gibby hit his infamous walk off home run to win game 1 the A's had takena 4-3 lead on the Dodgers sealing my victory and another $500 win. After resting up that night and before getting on my plane an angel gave me an inside tip while talking on the payphone. Again technology is great as cell phones were not in style in 1988. My angel told me to take the hard luck Cleveland Browns at home -2.5 against a beat up NY Jets team. The Browns had just come off a championship game vs. Elway the year before and were loaded but had yet to hit their stride. That October 16,1988 day in Cleveland they hit their stride defeating the Jets 19-3 and covering my 2.5 points. That was a sweet $1100 ticket I was holding right there and than.

All in all that weekend in Vegas I walked out with $4000 in winnning but was netting barely over $3000 after the airfare expense, hotel expense, drinks, food, etc. I might have won but as always one way or another Vegas always gets their cut and it was a healthy cut into my winnings.

As for the NFL and the naysayers. I couldn't have had such a great memory of college football without having placed a few dollars on what I remember as the greatest game ever and one of my greatest weekends in sports some 22 years ago. Now does it seem fair that the NFL should have all the fun and prohibit us from such fond memories?